The University of Central Missouri recognizes the need to develop, improve and maintain the career and personal skills of all staff members. To this end, UCM grants each staff member a benefit of release time to attend development activities.

II. Policy

A. Regular, classified, full-time staff employees will receive a minimum of eight (8) hours of release time each fiscal year to be used for the purpose of development. Staff development benefit hours which go unused will not be carried forward to the next fiscal year.

B. Regular, classified, part-time staff employees will receive a minimum of four (4) hours of release time each fiscal year to be used for the purpose of development. Staff development benefit hours which go unused will not be carried forward to the next fiscal year.

C. Staff development hours will be included in annual performance appraisals as a point of discussion between supervisors and employees. Supervisors will expect employees to utilize staff development benefit hours to the maximum efficacy. As a part of every supervisor’s performance appraisal, the total number of staff development benefit hours used by his or her employees will be included as a discussion point.

D. Employees will document each request for development release hours by printing/copying session registration forms and submitting them to their supervisor for approval. Supervisors will provide employees written rationales for denying specific requests in a timely manner.